Tag: 10 plots

A Weird Semblance Thereof (http://1000days.douglasblaine.com/20110105/a-weird-semblance-thereof/)
I’ll probably ransack this for the tidbits of new characterization I provided for Connor’s mother and some of the mystery there. The plot itself is trash.

The Fairy Plot
(http://1000days.douglasblaine.com/20110106/the-fairy-plot/)
This one puts some of the plot pieces together better than the others but still needs work. I aimed low for the Faerie cliché rather than tried to uncover something new.

Grumphook and Gertrude
(http://1000days.douglasblaine.com/20110107/grumphook-and-gertrude/)
This one I love for how well the pieces fell into place as I conjured it. I also love it for the title and the sense that Cathy Bates would be great as Gertrude.

Tempting Henry
(http://1000days.douglasblaine.com/20110201/tempting-henry/)
This turned out to have more twists than any other plot I came up with. The trouble was that I didn’t do a good job of getting the proper actions to match with the right events.

I can probably keep everything I wrote, but I need to add more and stir better.

Ten Beads for Iffan
(http://1000days.douglasblaine.com/20110202/ten-beads-for-iffan/)
I’m glad I revived this one. Now I have a piece I can shred and recreate.

The Transformation of a Honga Rider
(http://1000days.douglasblaine.com/20110203/the-transformation-of-a-honga-rider/)
I think this plot is workable enough, but I think I was too timid with the conflict. Set it on fire for better results.

Red Roy
(http://1000days.douglasblaine.com/20110204/red-roy/)
Wow. This is NOT what Red Roy originally was to be. It’s better and more managable with just one main character. Clean it up and rearrange the scenes I said I had in my head.

Tritti’s Ascension
(http://1000days.douglasblaine.com/20110210/trittis-ascension/)
The big pieces of this work well enough as captured. The juice is in the interpolating scenes.

Your Descent
(http://1000days.douglasblaine.com/20110211/your-descent/)
Close, but no cigar. This isn’t too bad in it’s own right, but it needs to jive with the Tritti thread if it’s going to be it’s own true story (not that it has to be, but it could).

The three from round one split two against one for rehashes and a brand new. Gertrude and Grumphook is the only one of nine that is blue sky new. Hmmm.

Interestingly, February coughed up twice as many plots I’d like to return to than January did despite my condemnation of my efforts in the second round. My best reason for that is that five of the six tackle plots I’ve long wanted to come back to plotting. At least now I have a sketch to fix up. The one other deals with material I’ve had stowed away in my brain for some time. Those six make good on several implicit promises.

I easily have enough here to work with the rest of this year—and more. I should promise a strategy. I should commit right here and right now. I should tell you that I’ll focus on these to the exclusion of all else. I should say 1000 Days is locked down and is no longer taking submissions. Instead I’ll leave you hanging and go sleep on this bold cusp.

I discovered why I wrote 10 plots for 11 days. I started on plot ten in the book which means I had eleven to work with during February. Which means that either I duplicated the last plot I did in January—which I don’t recall—or I only gave you nine plots in January which is possible but seems rather obviously egregious. I usually avoid obvious egregiousness.

My work here in February does not impress me. It gave me a backbone to work from and for that I am happy, but I fought it or blew it off at most opportunities. I may have had two plots worth coming back to and a third worth coming back to with vengeance.

Most of the plots offered up felt limp. Tobias’ elucidation of all twenty never held scads of concrete details to work with when envisioning his master plots. The later ten fared worse than the former. Sure, that is an excuse. I could have cinched up the strap accepted the challenge with lighter heart.

All that said, I don’t think that these first ten (eleven) days of February were wasted. I did write every day for one. I did plot every day. I did ingrain Story Fixer’s structure every day. I do feel like I benefited each and every day even if those benefits are not evident to you. Even if I can’t effectively codify them here. Mainly I learned to push through a scene to get to a whole plot. To get to (no matter how flimsy) an ending through (no matter how sparse) conflict. Secondarily, I learned to increase the conflict. I didn’t excel at defining the stakes. And I suppose it was worth it for me to briefly explore plot archetypes I might not otherwise have been drawn to in the past. So not a waste.

I should revisit these plots in the future, and I should do it soon. I should put the main points on note cards, fill in the gaps, and arrange till I’m pleased. I should take those cards and those plots which please me, and I should fucking write a story.

Lull – You speak to the Adroit Supplicant and blame him for your desperation.

Plot Point 2 – You decide the only way out is the way down; you vow to kill the demi-god expecting to die in the effort.

Conclusion – You do kill the demi-god; you do die in the effort.

Some of that’s a little squeezy, but I think I could work it out to make sense without significant overhaul. At least it’s a shit ton further along than I’ve been in the past with You or The Shanty thread.